Senators Photographed

Since the days of Woodrow Wilson the House of Representatives has been fair game for press photographers working from the gallery. Commonplace are newspictures and newsreels of joint sessions of Congress in the House Chamber being addressed by U. S. Presidents, of opening and closing sessions of the House by itself, of the full galleries and the empty floor. The Senate, on the other hand, has never permitted itself to be photographed in action. Like a dignified gentlemen's club, it has successfully enforced an unwritten rule against cameras by having hawk-eyed gallery guards confiscate them on sight.

Early last week, as Congress surged toward adjournment, Candid Cameraman Thomas D. McAvoy of Washington made his way quietly into a Senate Gallery, sat down behind two visitors. On the Senate floor below, Louisiana's Long was in the midst of his filibuster which marked the closing hours of the Senate session. Next to him sat Arizona's white-suited Ashurst and just beyond, Oklahoma's blind Gore, his head attentively lifted. In his frontrow aisle seat slouched Senate Leader Robinson, disgusted beyond words at the "Kingfish's" performance. Around the walls of the chamber stood Representatives who had come over from the House to watch the fun. . . .

When Photographer McAvoy left the Senate gallery, he had succeeded in taking the first newspictures in U. S. history of the Senate in session (see cut).

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